Dreamcast Won't Read GD-Roms

[RealisticDolphin]

It can play CDs perfectly fine but I put in Sonic Adventure and it doesn't recognize it at all. Says "please insert a disc". What do I do??

[Bob Dobbs]

Have you used other GD-ROM? First, you might want to make sure that the disc is not scratched deeper than a store's ability to re-surface the disc. I had a few discs that were plain "unusable" with a PS1 and PS2 games we inherited along with the PS2 Slim we were given. Others in recent posts mention some new GD-ROMs being "bad out of the box".

If this happens with more that one GD-ROM and you cannot find any real flaw with them, then it is most likely you drive. Question is, is it the laser or is it in need of a speed setting adjustment. Good luck.

DISC ERROR VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNJ_snYQwYs

[RealisticDolphin]

So I also got Jet Grind Radio yesterday. That works perfectly fine and as a test I put the SA1 disc in my computer and it recognized it as Sonic Adventure.

[OGDCFAN99]

Hold the disc up to a lamp and see if any specs of light shine through. It might be disc rot. This can be cause by either age or negligence. Most of the times its the latter as the top layer of GD's aren't exactly as durable as dvds and blu rays. I always email sellers on amazon and Ebay to check for this before I buy.

People always used to set their discs label side down and when they'd want to pick it up slide it across the surface until it hangs off the edge so it can be gripped. Everyone did it at some point. This friction caused a lot of unnecessary disc rot.